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Oregon Boy Intro

Hi all! I posted this in the general area as well but I thought that it might be fitting for the Oregon hunters.

On other forums it is complementary to introduce oneself, tell a little about yourself and tell a hunting story from the past.
About me; I live in Eastern Oregon and love it, I was in western Oregon for 12 years prior going to school and getting my life started with a family. I love hunting everything but miss hunting blacktails in the rut (that is my only complaint about being on the east side). I have been a official Oregon measurer for about 11 years,(I have applied to Boone & Crockett a few times) but I really don’t care about becoming a B & C measurer because I really only got into doing it to be able to judge animals better. I believe that Oregon is an underrated state as far as hunting goes as I believe that Oregon can be as good as anywhere in the western United States with a little prep and scouting time but I guess to the naysayers that it works out better for me. I put in for 9 states and including Oregon and wish I could put in for all of them but it is just out of my budget at this point in time. I really look forward to drawing some good tags in the future. I am primarily a bow hunter but have hunted all methods (rifle, bow, muzzleloader). I look forward to the day that I finally draw the tag that I have been chasing for 16 years, wenaha bow elk tag, at this point in my life I could draw most any other elk tag in Oregon but for me it is more about being able to tell my grandchildren that I waited patiently for x amount of years to draw the wenaha tag.
Hunting story;
I am going to keep the story short but by far the best hunt that I have ever been on and the only tag that I have ever drawn random was my Oregon sheep tag in 2003. I shot a California sheep that scored 175 net even though it is missing 5 inches on its left horn. I have half a slam (other sheep is a dall) my lifelong goal is to one day have a grand slam.

This is a little longer of a story than I wanted to type so I apologize in advance for the long write up.

To be honest with you I had the whole story saved on a drive that I had written up for Eastman’s a few years ago but I lost it and Eastman’s never published it. I will attempt to tell as much as I can remember but a lot of it now seems blurry.
One thing that I can tell you that I am pretty sure that one of the best days of my life other than getting married and having kids is finding out that I drew the tag. I was so excited I have never had a feeling quite like it and I really want that feeling again  I honestly could not tell you if I was more excited to draw the tag or shoot the sheep.
I will skip right to about 2 days before the hunt. I had arrived at my friend’s that had access to a ranch on the other side of the river. That is where I would scout from and try and find a ram. I had actually spotted the ram that I ended up harvesting the day that I arrived where I was staying. I was talking to my step father telling him “man if that ram wasn’t missing the 5 inches of the other side that would be one hell of a ram”. I had told my step father that I was not going to shoot a ram like that because I was only interested in a 180 plus type ram.
Fast forward to day one of the hunt and I spent most of the day trying to find a ram that was worth going after without success. On the second day of the season we saw an absolute stud that would probably beat the old 184 record and got video of him; man what a magnificent animal he was! After seeing the biggest California sheep I have ever seen we started to look where I could actually hunt when about 10 minutes later we spot a bruiser in my unit that might be every bit as big as the one we saw so my team and I head after him. An hour goes by and we finally make it to where we seen the big ram but by now he had dropped way down in elevation unbeknownst to my team and I until we get about 20 yards from him. The ram spooked and stopped about 600 yards away where I attempted a shot but shoot low; I was bummed for missing a huge ram but also excited that my once in a lifetime hunt was not over.
My team and I decide after the miss to stay in the canyon for the day and see what it brings us. That day I passed up over 20 rams that in most areas would be giant sheep but I knew the area had bigger rams. It was now getting about an hour and a half from getting dark and we were very deep in this canyon so we decided that it was time to try and get closer to the river to try and make a camp. About 20 minutes before dark and my father whispers to me “look at that stud up on the hillside”. I took one look at him and knew that this was the ram that I wanted to harvest.
I got settled in behind my rifle and prepared for the 450 yard shot, looked through my scope and the ram turned to show his left side. I knew that this was the ram that I had seen 2 days prior but I had made the decision that this was the ram that I was gonna take. You know that is when I realized that score isn’t everything. I had a great group of family and friends that took time off to be with me, it is hard for me to describe how honored I felt at that moment to have such a great group of people with me to share one of my life’s greatest moments; I will always cherish and appreciate all the moments of that hunt. I will also never forget what was going through my head right before I shot the ram, I said to myself “this will probably be the last time I get to see this through my scope in Oregon” I remember it like it was yesterday.
One thing that I took away from this hunt is that most people get so caught up in filling these type of tags that they don’t take the time to realize that this will be the last opportunity to hunt this type of animal until after the hunt. I see it every year people tell me that they wish they would have relished the moment better and that is one thing that I am proud to say that I did; I relished every moment of the hunt so that I would have no regrets.
If I could give one piece of advice to anyone who is a serious hunter it would be that if you draw a sheep or goat tag cherish every moment and go into the hunt to have no regrets because unless you are rich there will most likely not be a second chance.

I love sheep stories and that is a good one Deer, thanks. It sounds like the lower John Day River hunt? I used to be part of a helicopter capture team and net gunned sheep for relocation many times in the canyons of the John Day and Deschutes River's. Most captures took place in January and February because of cold temperatures to help reduce stress. The thing I noticed was the green feed everywhere that was available to the sheep. Milder winters and green forage year round contributes to big horns! We did captures in the Steens, Hart Mountain, Aldrich and McCellaan Mountains and the Owyhees and by far the biggest rams and best feed was the lower John Day and Deschutes rivers.